Eminent Living GeoJogiats — O. Poulett Scrope. 107 



preventing want, and even famine. Mr. Scrope took a prominent 

 part in the discussions on the Reform of the Poor Laws in England, 

 and their extension to Ireland and Scotland — measures long advo- 

 cated by him — in furthering the adoption of free-trade principles, 

 and generally of all social reforms. His interest in Geology, how- 

 ever, especially in that branch of the subject which he had made his 

 special study, had not altogether subsided. In 1835 bo reviewed 

 in the Quarterly the third edition of Ly ell's Principles (Quart. 

 Eev. vol. xliii. p. 406) ; and in 1856 he read before the Geological 

 Society a paper on the liquidity of Lavas, and the mode of for- 

 mation of Volcanic Cones and Craters (Geol. Soc. Journal for 

 1856, p. 337), in which he combated the famous Elevation 

 Crater theoiy of MM. Humboldt, Von Buch, and Elie de Beau- 

 mont, showing that it had originated in a mistaken view of the 

 origin of the " raised plain " around the Volcano of Jorullo in 

 Mexico, taken by the first of these authors — a view which Mr. 

 Scrope himself had opposed and exploded, in a special notice printed 

 in the appendix to his work on Volcanos, as early as 1824-5, but 

 which, notwithstanding, had since that date continued to spread, 

 " under the influence of a few great names," until it had thrown 

 into complete confusion, especially on the Continent, all current 

 notions upon the true mode of action of Volcanic energy. 



In February, 1859, Mr. Scrope recurred to this subject in a second 

 paper read before the Geological Society — induced by the fact of the 

 publication in the interval of M. de Humboldt's " Cosmos," through- 

 out the whole of which work the theory of Elevation Craters, and 

 the upheaval in mass of all volcanic mountains, was upheld, to the 

 utter confusion of all just ideas on the nature of volcanic action 

 (See The Geologist, vol. ii. p. 124). 



In 1862 Mr. Scrope superintended a new edition of his work on 

 Volcanos, with an enlarged description of all the known Volcanos 

 and volcanic formations of the globe, in which the faults of style 

 and arrangement of the earlier edition already mentioned were 

 avoided, while retaining all the original views, many of which — 

 especially that on the important part played by water in the pro- 

 duction of the igneous rocks — ^had been in the meantime confirmed 

 by the experiments of Sorby, Scheerer, Daubree, and others. 



The " Geology of Central Prance " had already passed through a 

 second edition (Murray, 1852), and both works had been printed in a 

 French translation at Paris. 



From that time to the present Mr. Scrope has continued to 

 contribute occasional papers to the several scientific periodicals — 

 among them the following: — "On the probable influence, upon tlie 

 internal structure of rocks, of the mutual friction of their component 

 parts, when forced into motion under extreme pressure " (read 

 before the Geological Society, May 12th, 1858, and printed in The 

 Geologist, vol. i., p. 362, with an illustration). In this paper Mr. 

 Scrope contended that the foliation of the metamorphic schists, no 

 less than the "cleavage" of the finer slates, was owing to the 

 " squeeze " of their crystalline or semi-crystalline particles (unequi- 



